The Land of Rape and Honey, by Martha Thomases – Brilliant Disguise | @MDWorld

June 14, 2014 Martha Thomases 21 Comments

Hey, you know that “liberal” media you hear so much about?  The one epitomized by The Washington Post?  Well, that particular media myth had a terrible week.

Columnist George Will wrote an execrable column about the increasing awareness of sexual assaults on college campuses.  He doesn’t like this trend (in no small part because the Obama administration is trying to do something about it), and so he questions how serious the problem actually is.

For example, he says here, “Threatening to withdraw federal funding, the department mandates adoption of a minimal “preponderance of the evidence” standard when adjudicating sexual assault charges between males and the female “survivors” — note the language of prejudgment. Combine this with capacious definitions of sexual assault that can include not only forcible sexual penetration but also nonconsensual touching. Then add the doctrine that the consent of a female who has been drinking might not protect a male from being found guilty of rape. Then comes costly litigation against institutions that have denied due process to males they accuse of what society considers serious felonies.”

You see, rape isn’t really a problem because so much isn’t rape.  Will uses the term “nonconsensual touching” as well as an example of a woman who didn’t report her assault (by a man she knew and used to date) for six weeks to show what a trivial problem this is.

And who suffers when this happens?  The men, who Will says are being denied due process.  They’re the real victims.

You know why they’re being denied true process?  Because the universities, eager to cover their own asses, treat rape and sexual assault as campus problems, not legal problems. What is is about organized groups of powerful men (e.g.  Catholic Church, Penn State) that makes them more concerned about their reputations than the rule of law?

I’m not going to toe a stereotypically feminist line here and say all men on campus accused of rape are guilty.  I can even understand how some men may commit rape without knowing they are doing so.  There is a romantic myth in our country that women want to be wooed, seduced and overpowered by their suitors.  It’s possible that some of these male students, away from home for the first time, misunderstand the signals.  I know how easy it is, when I’m turned on, to think that everyone else is turned on, too.  Throw in a few drinks (or other entertaining substances) and it’s easy to believe one is reading body language correctly, even when one is not.

If you aren’t sure that the object of your desire desires you, there’s a simple trick you can do to stay out of trouble.

It’s easy.  It’s clear.  And if the answer is, “yes,” that’s really hot.  If the answer is, “no,” you stay out of jail.  It’s win-win!

Note:  A person passed out from drinking cannot consent.  Snores and/or drooling mean “no.”

George Will is a columnist, and one cannot reasonably infer that his opinions are the same as those of the Post.  For that, one needs to look at news stories.  Here’s a doozy.

Did you read that?  It says that the way to end violence against women is for women to get married.  If we can only find a man, he’ll take care of us.  That way, we’ll have someone to protect us from those other loathsome men.

This is ridiculous.  It flies in the face of all of the research on violence against women.  Here are two (out of many) facts from that link:

• Every year, 1 in 3 women who is a victim of homicide is murdered by her current or former partner.

• More than 60% of domestic violence incidents happen at home.

We need to stop thinking that being part of a family is some kind of miracle cure-all.  I mean, I like my family in almost all of its various permutations.  They did right by me, and I try every day to pass that on.  But just because a group of people are in a relationship sanctified by religion and vetted by the state doesn’t mean everyone in that group is a good person.  Nor do money and education keep away the violence.

Women and their allies need to step up and take care of ourselves.  We need to prosecute rapists when they rape, and we need to tell our suiters what we want — and don’t want — clearly, so there is no doubt.  We need to stand up for our sisters and brothers who are assaulted.  We need to teach our children how to be loud and proud so no grown-up takes advantage.

And sometimes, we just need to sign a petition.

Martha Thomases, Media Goddess, may be in a better mood when she is finished with this round of dental appointments.